Pavlov Archaeological Park, Pavlov, Czech Republic

The integration of building and landscape into a single whole is a large theme in contemporary architecture.

Photo credits: Gabriel Dvořák

Photo credits: Gabriel Dvořák

The integration of building and landscape into a single whole is a large theme in contemporary architecture. Archeopark Pavlov is an exceptional building and a one-of-a-kind museum. Inside this concrete monolith, whose parts emerge from the surrounding grassland like white rocks, visitors will find an exhibition on an archaeological site of international importance – a settlement of mammoth hunters from the late Stone Age.

The Pálava region in southern Moravia is one of the oldest continuously inhabited parts of Europe. Local archaeological and anthropological finds have documented settlement as far back as during the Gravettien period – i.e., roughly 30,000 years ago. The people of that era, called mammoth hunters, built huts and entire settlements, buried their dead, produced tools and created art. The sculpture of a woman known as the Venus of Dolní Věstonice is the oldest known ceramic artefact in the world. The Palaeolithic settlements in Dolní Věstonice and Pavlov are a protected national cultural landmark and also lie within a protected landscape area that is part of an international network of biosphere reservations aimed at protecting examples of the world’s rarest ecosystems.

The complete article is published in Autumn 2019 issue of Piranesi No. 41/Vol. 27.